PSEi sinks below 6,000 anew

MANILA, Philippines — The local stock market fell below the 6,000-level anew as investors continued to tread with caution while waiting for catalysts.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index declined for the fourth straight session yesterday, slipping by 0.82 percent or 49.37 points to  5,987.75.

The broader All Shares index also ended in the negative territory, dipping by 0.28 percent or 10.24 points to settle at 3,607.03.

“The index again breached the key psychological support at 6,000 as investors remain wary ahead of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas monetary board meeting this week,” AP Securities research head Alfred Benjamin Garcia said.

“While the consensus is that the board will cut benchmark rates by 25 basis points, there’s also the likelihood that they will hit pause on policy easing especially after the Fed left rates unchanged during their January meeting,” Garcia said.

Claire Alviar of Philstocks Financial said the local bourse failed to stay above the 6,000 psychological level as investors continued to assess US President Donald Trump’s new tariffs while awaiting other catalysts.

“Moreover, investors were looking ahead to the BSP’s meeting this week. Net foreign selling further weighed on the market, recording a net outflow of P655.18 million,” Alviar said.

Net value turnover saw a slight improvement to P5.27 billion from the previous day’s P5.1 billion.

All counters were in the red, except for financials, which jumped by 1.26 percent.

Property and services incurred the biggest losses, plunging by 2.81 percent and 2.23 percent, respectively.

Market breadth remained negative as decliners battered advancers, 106 to 78, while 55 issues were unchanged.

BDO Unibank led the index members with a 3.83-percent jump, while Emperador lost the most with a 7.05-percent drop.